We were thrilled to collaborate on WWF ÉnErdőm (MyForest) app as part of the CLIMAFORCEELIFE project. This augmented reality (AR) application demonstrates how a homogeneous, climate-vulnerable plantation forest can transform into a diverse, resilient natural forest with high biodiversity.
More info on WWF's website
Our users can plant forest edges, tree seedlings, create aquatic microhabitats, install nest boxes, and watch their forest flourish. Additionally, the app educates users about species affected by climate change, allowing them to guess which species thrive or suffer and take a selfie with Konrád, the little flycatcher, for correct answers.
Our collaboration with scientists ensured the app's accuracy, and we felt privileged to transition from volunteers to partners with WWF.
The app is available for download on Android and iOS worldwide.
***Winner Best in Show VR Award at Siggraph Los Angeles ***
Winner of People’s Choice VR at Siggraph Sydney
Winner Best Interactive XR Award at Kaohsiung XR Dreamlab Festival
Winner Best International XR for Impact at DocEdge Film Festival
Project website - www.missing10hours.com
M10H - Missing 10 Hours is a multimedia project, which by using the most innovative technologies and contemporary visual style raises awareness of the Bystander Effect among young partygoers.
Missing 10 Hours VR is a multi-ending experience that takes you on a journey of challenges and tough decisions, ultimately leading to a shocking revelation. It is important to note that M10H is not a video game, but rather an interactive story that guides you through the narrative, allowing you to make decisions that affect the outcome.
Based on true stories of young partygoers who are survivors of drug-facilitated abuse.
M10H PROJECT
The project consists of a creative documentary, supported by HBO EUROPE, and a VR project, which is based on a real event. In the multiending VR, the user can be the bystander, the friend of the perpetrator, who can have an effect on the narrative or the user can also be the survivor. By consulting with well known psychologists and experts we made sure that the experience is ethically correct, it does not trigger anyone but it is still effective.
Jamie & Jamie VR
Venice Biennale College Cinema VR Workshop 2020- Official selection
In the surreal VR-comedy “Jamie & Jamie” participants are invited to reconsider power relations in everyday life. In Western culture, expanded gender politics have been a flourishing agency of female and LGBTQ art practices since the early seventies. However, subject matters such as inequality and invisible work in the household still carries urgent actuality.
As gender-neutral avatars, the participants are subjected to the perpetual tyranny of a ruthless washing machine. The challenge of the game is to turn their competition into collective victory over the machine's domination. The piece will be exhibited in public and online spaces to reach a wider audience even in times of pandemics.
Supporting partners:
Wirtschaftagentur Wien - Content Vienna Fund
immersive - VR - performance - VFX - motion capture - photogrammetry
Collaborators :: Kimberly Lin, Esther Siddiquie, Manuela Romero
Visuals: Zara Maria Olsson
Premiere :: 2018/30/11 :: IAC - InterActiveCorp :: New York City
RunVR is a multidisciplinary exploration of the relation between human nature and technology. It is perceiving the latter as a tool extending and altering the human condition. Tying together virtual reality and live performance, this piece addresses how technology is replacing and affecting the physical world. The nudity of the protagonist, Jake, represents the dichotomy between body cult, while at the same time neglecting the reality. Jake, an ordinary young man, disregards the social norm against nudity as soon as he puts on his VR headset. His gesture signifies technology’s capability to dominate us human beings while his point of view projected on a wide screen reflects the intimate experience we formed with digital media. Using body as a cult symbol, RunVR channels our competitive human nature and contemplates our motivation to exercise. It investigates how we value our own body that ultimately raises questions about beauty ideals in our society.
Role :: Ideation, Art Direction, Directing Mocap
Key Collaborators :: Asha Veeraswamy, Nia Farrell
AAOX3 weaves together an amalgamated narrative about transformation to create a live Motion Capture experience that stretches the intimacy of performance to disrupt our moral expectations about violence within the virtual world. In this piece, the performer confronts three Janusian representations of the self with the help of active audience members. This audience impetus provides agency to move the story forward from embodiment to empowerment. AAOX3 — medical shorthand for “Awake, Alert, & Oriented to Person, Place, & Time,” pushes the technical, musical, & emotive boundaries of Motion Capture technology, transforming the NYU MAGNET Black Box space into an experimental vignette about the inescapable pain of metamorphosis.
This project was created by Fanni K. Fazakas, Nia Farrell, Shimin Gu, Asha Veeraswamy, and Tianyue Wu in a collaboration between NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program, Interactive Digital Media Program, & Experimental Theater wing. This installation was developed with Unreal Engine, Optitrack Motion Capture System, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Motionbuilder, Cinema 4D, Nvidia Gameworks, Spout, Open Sound Control, Ableton & Madmapper.
Solid Lure is an experimental AV performance
dance: Renata Voros
visuals: Csaba Vilagosi
fashion: Chetres
Shows: 4DSOUND Budapest, Spatial Sound Institute
The concept idea is coming from two different directions. Contemporary dancer Renata Vörös has been researching a choreography technique where the space within the dancers are moving is limited.
This means that the dancer can move only within certain quarters by always leaving one body part inside the rectangle on the floor or elsewhere. While exploring the approach she experienced how different it is to practice the same choreography and how much spatiality can limit but on the other hand concentrate the dancer’s mental focus. This idea led to think about the same fact dimensional to sound - how much different it is to play the same sound source in different distances and spaces.
Fanni Fazakas aka Rumex got to know the essentials of working with spatial sound during her half year internship at 4DSOUND. The last two years she was working on neuro and biofeedback projects where the sound is generated and controlled by the brain and the body. This time she wants to highlight the most outstanding possibilities of 4DSOUND by creating a performance where the spatiality and the movement of the sound sources are controlled by a dancer.
Visually the before mentioned 'limited moving space' is being symbolised by a white square projected on the floor, surrounded by four transparent walls that the dancer can interact with. Anytime she is moving in a certain direction, the sound source and the visuals are reacting to it and moving into this particular space in time. This is captured by a kinect with the help of software engineer Gábor Fekete by getting data out from the skeleton points of the dancer's body trough OSC into the 4DSOUND engine which then calculates the position of each sound related to the body parts. The team also uses gyro sensitive sensors called RiOT.
The dancer can influence different spatial effects and parameters of each sound source. To help the flexibility of her movement a special costume is made to fix the wireless Riot sensors at the two wrists and ankles. Fashion designer and owner of Csetresz, Johanna Kupi, developed a stretchable body colour piece which also serves the concept of minimalism.
Fazakas: “ I can say we all consider it important to create new ideas and let our different knowledge and interest melt into a crossdisciplinary project with a strong therorical background. Personally my first time I meet with the 4DSOUND system was in 2014 at the ADE. I was shocked about the whole idea and I decided that once in a life but I would like to know everything about it and also share my ideas with the developers. Next to my half year internship I started to experience know how much we forget about listen carefully in our daily life - many says that mostly because our society is visually oriented. Im an audiovisual artist thinking that in our performance, the visuals are made in a way that it helps to understand not just what happens when the dancer is controlling the sound but also how sound is gaining new audible layers meanwhile it manifests in time and space.”
WORK IN PROGRESS
MyStrangeHead is the original idea of Cassandra de Klerck.
As part of this collaborative project, I was in charge of virtual content creation and basic game development.
Using 4DViews volumetric video capturing technology the main task was to optimize the piece while making sure the artistic vision is fulfilled by the end result.
Collaboration with Cassandra de Klerck - Director and Creative
To bring her film ideas to life, Cassandra de Klerck started experimenting with Virtual Acting in 2017. She fell in love with the endless possibilities and continued to experiment and research. Step by step, day by day she builds something she truly believes in. For Cassandra, everything revolves around bringing alive new creative ideas, together with nice and talented people.
Summer Syndrome is an award winning music video which is also the main song on Rumex EP released by Comport Records in 2017.
Best Directing prize at Hungarian MVA 2016
Southampton International Film Festival 2016
National Film Festival for Talented Youth 2017
London Short Film Festival 2017
Austin Music Video Festival 2017
Short of the Month 2016 May
Director Statement
My concept was to go against the typical music videos about summer meanwhile symbolising different situations - what makes summer less enjoyable.
I composed the music, I recorded synth and you can also hear my vocals in it. I also created a storyboard, and from a really low budget we and the team made it happen. This was the most complicated project I’ve ever done in my life, also my first music video. I was directing, filming, editing, colorgrading - so please check out the result.
Interactive audiovisual performance using neuro and biofeedback
Prizes: Ars Electronica STARTS Prize 2017
Collaborator: muarts
Shows: MusicTechFest Scandinavia & Central Hackathon Berlin.
“Is the mind separated from the body? Is there any relation between our thoughts and our physiology?”
During this act we address this ancient philosophical question by using state-of- the-art technology to hack the brain & the body and translate their activity into a creative set of sound and images all related to our deepest feelings, emotions and intentions. Here, the brain acts as an audiovisual sampler and the body movements as an effect modulator. The mind will control audio and video samples organised in a mental playlist according to its activation or relaxation and the body will control the effects according to its position, acceleration and angle.
Directed by - Fanni Fazakas
Director Of Photography - Dániel Szőke
Assistant Director / Editor - Miklós Hadházi
By researching what is “love" Fazakas invented each scenes as a symbol of different love forms, such as being in love with ourselves, being in love with the one who hurts us and being in love with the one who is the exact opposite of us.
“With the rock-paper-scissor scene in the beginning we depict that love is a game and one of the partners always has more power - in other words he always wins the game” explains Fazakas. “But with each occasion we see the “loser” and we explore more and more bruises on his face. With this we intend to draw attention that love can be dangerous and aggressive sometimes but even if it is, we in our society are so inclined to get used to things even if they are not healthy for us that we rather stay inside a harmful relationship. In the very beginning when we just see the shaking shoulders - it’s the fun fact and the hoax reflected on the audience’s habits and expectations. “
Symbolism, brain and love. These are the weapons of this music video besides extraordinary locations, professional compositions and dark and quirky humour though it’s pretty deep and composite content keeps us watching it again and again to find out - "Is love just a desire?”
Tarry is an interactive documentary about real uncommon thoughts. The viewer can change between two storylines with her movement in front of a kinect. The inspiration came from the IDFA doclab - Virtual Reality show, Amsterdam, thanks for Oscar Raby, multimedia artist.
The full version of the film was debuting at the opening of We'll fix it in POST, 02/24/2015.
30 WHT is a finalist of #MTFCymatics in 2015 May.
Vibrations make shapes. Continents have been shaped through vibrations. From the microscopically small to the cosmic scale, Cymatics is integral to nature. Cymatics comes together with brainwave entrainment through binaural beats. Cymatics is found in art, in the home, in food and drink and in music.
Entries have closed for the MTF Cymatics challenge and we are pleased to present the finalist videos below. Congratulations to Ginger Leigh (aka Synthestruct) from Orlando, Florida, Fanni Fazakas from Budapest, Hungary and CJ Carr from Boston, Massachussetts for their winning entries. We will be flying them to Umeå (with all flights and accommodation included) to showcase their Cymatics hack on the main stage at #MTFScandi and to join the 24-hour hack camp at the festival.
Nu Subø is an experimental video of the aspect how I see the music field in our generation. Meanwhile it hypnotises the audience it depicts a strong refusal about mainstream music production.
The sound is composed by me in a sensitive way of reflecting on the storyline. Meanwhile we got closer to the unconscious mind, we also have a feeling with music that we reach something deeper, something more honest. The sound design was made by a few field recordings and existing material distortion in Ableton.
Generally how I play live act in clubs is still resisting on the hypnotic feeling as in this video but on the other hand it has more tech elements in the set.
2MH is a participatory and time based installation where multiple people can try to destroy a physical entity by their thoughts. The time I provide them is exactly 2 minutes just as the “Two minute hate” in Orwell’s 1984.
Tools // Muse EEG, MuseLab, Terminal, Arduino, Processing
Within this time frame they have the opportunity to focus on destroying a castle cube made by sugar cubes. If they concentrate hard enough it means a motor arm will take action and start whipping black oil paint on the cube. I decided to use this material because its also nice visually if one person is doing it but by the end of the Winter Show I hope more people will destroy the cube entirely.
The intention with 2MH is to give an audience the opportunity to try out the brainwave sensor and also the joy of being destructive as a child. Just as when you demolish a sand castle which somebody else have built up carefully. We all know that feeling. It is childish, selfish, dark but on the other hand also very ecstatic.
"I hope they will understand that these sensors are actually getting more and more accurate and they really give a raw data straight from your brain which other people can interpret. I also want them to stay focused in a cruel way and after trying the installation out feel a bit ashamed and guilty."
The cube itself will symbolise power. I decided not to give it a real form but just a general image which everyone can interpret as they wish for. The paint has to be oily and not only water based otherwise it collapses too early.
Introduction to Physical Computing, ICM, Mindfulness and Transformative Technologies, Digital Self-Defense
MBO-D is a Yoga sound tuning performance within by reaching the perfect yoga position the instruments are playing harmonics. The brainwave sensor is playing a role this time as an effect pad. It was first performed during the CTM Festival in 2015, Berlin FunkHaus.
Diana Combo [PT]
Fanni Fazakas [HU]
Giampaolo Costagliola [VE]
Marie Caye [FR]
Maximilian Weber [DE]
Tools// Ableton Live, Max MSP, Darwiin, Nintendo Wii Mote, Emotiv Epoc
Organic techno performed live, produced by fingers and brainwaves.
RUMEX infuses her aptitude as audiovisual artist, music producer, pianist and vocalist to form a new audiovisual experience. Coming from a classical music background her music utilizes classical instruments with today’s popular electronic styles like: Techno, House, and Glitch Pop.
Her latest EP - Summer Syndrome won the “Best Music” and “Best Directing” categories in different international Film Festivals in London and around the US. The main song also hit the #84th place in the ITunes Top 200 Tracks Music Electronic Chart.
Rumex is constantly evolving using the latest technology (brain computer interface, Virtual Reality, MaxMsp) to capture the complexity of her audio visual style within a live performance.
Game Design for Hungarian Jewish Archive, 2016 Budapest.
Ez a már most is működő projekt egy kvízjáték, mely két iPadről érhető el a MILEV várakozójában, ahol mindig akadnak turisták, látogatók, iskolás csoportok. A falra vetítve végtelenítve pereg egy három és félperces némafilm, amely egy elegáns zsidó esküvőt örökít meg. Most a film titkait a látogatók a Látványraktár bejáratánál elhelyezett táblagépeken futó alkalmazás segítségével fedezhetik fel, sőt az is megtudhatjuk, hogy hogyan végződött a házasság.
The power to destroy your most hated music by brainwaves.
Tools // Emotiv Epoc, EmoComposer, Mindyou OSC, MaxMsp, Ableton
I asked the participants to choose one mainstream music what they hate the most. I called the chosen song into Ableton and then let them to experience how facial gestures and mind states can implement the changes on the sound. It’s about anger and frustration and the fact that brain waves are not only for meditation apps.
This VR project is a test round for being a part of a bigger film project called Missing 10 Hours made by hungarian documentary filmmakers.
While searching for K.’s 10 stolen hours - supposedly caused by date rape drug - she discovers a far bigger issue than she originally thought. It is frequent and severe but everybody -individuals, society, authorities and state - keeps quiet about it.
GHB is a sneaky weapon, colorless, odorless. It is very difficult to find its traces as it leaves the body within hours, so a result, most of these cases stay unseen. Due to the lack of evidence, perpetrators don’t have to be afraid of being charged. Only a few drops is enough to knock you out, under its influence you become defenseless. And it has another dangerous side effect: it causes blackout.
Not knowing what happened can sometimes be worse than knowing because uncertainty contains all the horrible options.
The price of clicking. We forgot about it. This installation is dedicated to reveal the essential meaning of Orwell’s 1984.
Tools // Arduino, p5JS, Laser cutting, HTML, C++
Documentation below.
